Home owners given notice on East West Link despite uncertainty over route

Adam Carey and Clay Lucas

Howard and Gillian Tuxworth, with children Harry and Molly. Their Collingwood home is set to be levelled for a temporary road for East West Link construction vehicles. Photo: Getty Images/Paul Jeffers

Dozens of Melbourne homeowners who live in the path of the proposed East West Link have been told the Napthine government intends to acquire their homes by early October, despite recent changes to the design of the road that have made its final course uncertain.

Property owners in Melbourne’s inner north have been told by phone to expect a formal “notice of intention to acquire” in the first week of August.

The notice, by the Linking Melbourne Authority, will trigger a minimum two-month period before the government can take ownership of the properties.

Slater & Gordon practice group leader Ben Hardwick last week wrote to several property owners to inform them of its preliminary view that there were no legal grounds on which it could challenge the notices, despite renewed uncertainty about what land would be required to build the East West Link.

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Planning Minister Matthew Guy approved the project on June 30, but with changes to the design that was analysed and debated in an exhaustive 30-day public hearing.

His decision was on Friday challenged by Moreland council, , which voted to seek a judicial review in the Supreme Court.

The government has not signed contracts for the $14 billion-$18 billion project. It aims to do so before November 4, when it will enter caretaker mode before the November 29 state election.

Labor opposes the East West Link but says it would honour any contracts signed before the election.

Mr Hardwick said the new uncertainty about what land the project would claim had created “at least some prospect that such contracts won’t be able to be entered into by the election”.

“LMA is clearly acting on the basis of an assumption that the project will proceed,” he wrote.

“We appreciate that LMA’s position is inconsistent with the broader uncertainty about the shape of the project and the impending state election and this makes it very hard for you to plan for your future.”

A spokeswoman for the authority said notices would be issued "once the project area is declared, which we expect in the near future, but owners wouldn't need to leave their properties for over a year".

Clifton Hill resident Gillian Tuxworth said the authority had phoned her family on Tuesday to tell them to expect a notice in early August.

The Tuxworths live on Wellington Street in a house that is to be levelled to make way for a temporary road for construction vehicles. The expert panel that assessed the East West Link recommended the temporary road not be built, “due to unacceptable and ... unnecessary impacts on existing residents and businesses”. Mr Guy rejected this recommendation.

Ms Tuxworth said the family was told the house would be acquired in October but they would not have to move out until August 2015. She said they were resigned to leaving, but did not want to.

“We bought this house eight years ago. It was pretty derelict and we’ve done it all up and brought it back to its heritage,” she said. “We’ve replastered, we’ve repainted, we’ve had windows replaced, we now have a beautiful family home with a beautiful back garden.”

She said that although she believed something had to be done to relieve congestion on Melbourne's roads, she didn’t “understand the rush” to sign contracts for the East West Link.

“I don’t feel the government has necessarily explored all the options. Why can’t [the temporary road] be moved 400 metres down the road so we don’t have to move? We don’t have any answers,” she said.

The East West Link is a proposed 18-kilometre tollway between the Eastern Freeway in Collingwood and the Western Ring Road in Sunshine West, with a connection to the Port of Melbourne.

18 comments

This new road will do nothing at all to reduce congestion. It based on a fallacy that has been known for decades, and is demonstrated all across Melbourne today - you cannot build your way out of congestion.

Freeways of this very type cause a phenomenon known as "induced demand". That is to say, when it is built, it will not only cater for the "planned" traffic", but will generate its own traffic as well. This will bring congestion not only to the new road, but the surrounding freeway system, Tulla, Bolte, and Citylink, but also to the feeder roads for the new road and to some extent the feeders for the extant roads.

Napthine's assertion that EWL ease congestion when there is a serious crash on Citylink is flawed. HOw will the "held up" traffic get to EWL? what will happen when that traffic is added to the normal EWL traffic?

It is a recipe for gridlock right across the inner freeway system. Currently the gap between Eastern and Tulla provides a buffer zone between the 2 freeways. This dissipates traffic pressure.

Once this pressure valve is opened, the phenomenon of "phantom traffic jams" will occur much more often. This is where one car slows for some reason the car behind slows a little more and so on until the whole freeway grinds to a halt. These jams move like a pulse through water, backwards down the freeway at a spped of around 20 kph. Once started they are almost impossible to stop.

My prediction is that EWL will send these more and more frequently around the whole system.

Hoddle St is possibly the most gridlocked St in the inner system. What do you think will happen when you link traffic from Tulla and Citylink to Hoddle?

Commenter

Riddley Walker

Location

Inland

Date and time

July 21, 2014, 5:24AM

In regard to Induced road demand, that occurres because housing developements form where there is transport, whether it be rail or freeways. Making it easier to get around Melbourne, will make our workforce more flexible. Riddley, try getting from North Melbourne to the Eastern Freeway at 5pm on a weeknight. It will take you about an hour.

Commenter

Kingstondude

Location

Malaysia atm

Date and time

July 21, 2014, 6:13AM

@Kingstondude, what you say is partly true.

Housing developments do form where there is transport, whether it be rail or freeways. But where you build freeways, then people will use them. And that is all we have been building for the last 40 years. Consequently we have a city based on car transit for most people. This has been a mistake, as we now realise with ever worsening congestion.

The problem is that we are not learning form that mistake, and are now locking young couples into outer ring suburbs where they require two cars to manage work and children requirements. This is incredibly expensive and inefficient.

There's no single solution, but making housing more medium density, and basing it on rail rather than cars will assist. Making local housing developments with safe connections for local to walk or cycle the 5k or less to the shops instead of driving makes sense too. But the developments are designed to prevent that kind of local transit.

On top of all that there is also induced demand where people drive out of their way to the freeways. This of course causes more congestion on the way there and on the freeway itself. Interestingly, wehn oyu pull down a freeway as has occurred in a number of cities, the traffic just goes away, as if it never existed.

Making it easier to get around Melbourne, will make our workforce more flexible.This is exactly my point. With a proper public transport system and bike network, you take all the 5 km or less traffic off the roads. You get a significant proportion of the single occupant commuters off the roads.

Then there is enough room for those who really need to drive, the trades and deliveries etc. And you don't need freeways.

Commenter

Riddley Walker

Location

Inland

Date and time

July 21, 2014, 7:51AM

My expectation will be that within a couple fo years the EWL will be congested to the point of dysfunction. Then which Govt (unless its the Greens) will say - oh, we must prioritise this congestion, we will widen the freeways, and widen Hoddle St, and the cycle will continue, without pause for thought or assessment, and without assessing the same projects that have consistently failed in their goals in the past.

Rates vs GST. Yes the lawyers being paid from collected rates paid to to fight lawyers being paid by collected GST. The winner - Lawyers, the Losers - Victorian Rate and Taxpayer. Iy's about time we had a mechanism that would allow Govt Bodies to settle their disputes. Could the Moreland City Council please upgrade their roads so we can get accross Inner North Melbourne?

Commenter

Kingstondude

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

July 21, 2014, 5:39AM

the Moreland Council is only interested in closing roads in order to make bike paths.

Commenter

frank

Date and time

July 21, 2014, 8:07AM

Mr Napthine, in this increasingly unstable world, can you guarantee fuel supplies? If not, stop this project now or your legacy may be a $20 billion white elephant. And thousands of Victorians without public transport options in a bankrupt State.

Commenter

Jan

Location

Victoria

Date and time

July 21, 2014, 6:49AM

Have you seen the traffic on Brunswick Rd Brunswick with people going to the Freeway and airport? How can you say that a freeway wouldn't assist with this.

I often get picked up by taxis to get to the airport and they all tell me that they use Brunswick rd to get to the airport. Have you ever tried coming down Alexander Pde to get to the airport? The traffic is ridiculous!

How can linking the Eastern Freeway to the other freeways be a bad thing? Seriously, haven't people got more serious things to worry about - it just seems like some people are protesting for the sake of protesting!

I'm no fan of the State Liberal Government or Naptime, but this makes sense.

Commenter

Free Way

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

July 21, 2014, 6:50AM

I live on Brunswick Road and I am hoping this freeway will lessen the traffic along there. It is a nightmare - not to mention the pollution and noise. Bring it on I say.

Commenter

Curly

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

July 21, 2014, 7:11AM

Sorry, Free Way, but it doesn't make sense.

The tunnel is simply going to move the current congestion on Hoddle St to the hospital precinct on Flemington Rd.

Guy's approval of the original design of the intersection at Flemington Rd is so bad he has now agreed it needs redesigning!

I cannot see commuters paying $25 a day to use the tunnel, on top of our tax dollars. You might every so often you go to the airport, but cab users will be avoiding the extra $12.50 one way tunnel surcharge and will still use Brunswick Rd ... just as many cab users avoid the Bolte Bridge and tollway to avoid paying the extra tollsfor no benefit.

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